F5
Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV)
today announced the newest member of its growing portfolio of solutions
for fixed and mobile service providers. F5® BIG-IP®
Policy Enforcement Manager (PEM™) combines the strength
of F5’s intelligent traffic steering functionality with a context-aware
policy enforcement solution. Providing deep visibility and analytics
into subscriber behavior, applications, and the network itself, BIG-IP
PEM empowers service
providers to optimize network performance, introduce new
revenue-generating services, and better control costs. The foundation of
F5’s approach is its intelligent services framework, which offers
service providers a unified solution for optimizing service delivery and
security, and monetizing services.
“Service providers are dealing with enormous challenges, among them, a
relentless growth in mobile applications and data traffic, falling
average revenue per user (ARPU), increasingly sophisticated security
threats, and skyrocketing infrastructure costs,” said Manny Rivelo, EVP,
Service Provider and Security Solutions at F5. “Those costs, along with
network complexity, continue to rise for service providers because,
until now, they have been forced to deploy core services via point
solutions. With BIG-IP Policy Enforcement Manager, they can deliver
multiple services from a unified platform—without sacrificing
performance or scalability.”
Details
BIG-IP PEM is the latest addition to F5’s intelligent services
framework. For years, the BIG-IP system has provided core services that
are critical to service providers, including intelligent
traffic steering, TCP optimization, and DNS
services. Recently, F5 released additional components of this
platform, including BIG-IP
Carrier-Grade NAT and BIG-IP
Advanced Firewall Manager™. All are available as modules,
standalone solutions, or virtual editions of the BIG-IP system.
With BIG-IP PEM, service providers now have the ability to classify
traffic and enforce policy based on applications and subscriber
behavior. BIG-IP PEM also provides granular reports on subscriber and
application flows, and it integrates with online charging subsystems,
giving operators real-time credit control.
BIG-IP PEM has been tested with third-party Policy and Charging Rules
Function (PCRF) vendors and is compliant with the latest 3GPP standards
for a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF).
BIG-IP PEM helps customers:
-
Enable new business models for increased revenue – Through
its comprehensive analytics and context-aware capabilities,
BIG-IP PEM gives service providers deep visibility into network
conditions and subscriber behavior. With this intelligence, service
providers have greater network control and are better equipped to
develop innovative subscriber plans and new service offerings that can
be rolled out quickly.
-
Improve efficiency of value-added services – To maintain
their competitive edge, service providers must continually introduce
new value-added services (VAS) such as video optimization, parental
controls, and web caching, which drive up costs and increase network
complexity. BIG-IP PEM helps service providers overcome these
challenges. When placed in front of VAS servers, BIG-IP PEM not
only detects subscriber traffic in the network, it also intelligently
routes the relevant traffic to the appropriate VAS platforms, thereby
more efficiently using these resources.
-
Virtualize core network elements – BIG-IP PEM enables
service providers to implement Network
Functions Virtualization (NFV) by coordinating with virtual
orchestration systems to provision and deprovision VAS servers based
on real-time subscriber and network traffic conditions. As a result,
service providers can respond effectively to extreme spikes and lulls
in traffic.
-
Realize carrier-grade scalability and performance – BIG-IP
PEM is available on VIPRION®,
F5’s high-performance, chassis-based hardware platform. When run on
F5’s latest VIPRION C4800 offering, BIG-IP PEM enables service
providers to achieve up to 320 gigabits per second of layer 7
throughput, support up to 72 million concurrent connections, and serve
as many as 96 million subscribers on a single device.
-
Reduce costs and network complexity – Because BIG-IP PEM
enables the delivery of multiple core services based on unified
platform architecture, service providers can eliminate many point
solutions, simplifying the network and driving down costs. Service
providers can further reduce costs using the BIG-IP system because it
enables them to smoothly transition their 2G and 3G networks to LTE
and IPv6 networks.
In addition, when BIG-IP PEM runs on
VIPRION hardware, core services can be provisioned on any blade, so
service providers gain flexibility and avoid the necessity and added
expense of stocking service-specific blades.
Supporting Quote
“F5’s new solution addresses a fast growing market opportunity and
important set of capabilities that CSPs urgently require,” said Deb
Osswald, VP of CSP Operations at IDC Research. “Together, policy
enforcement, traffic steering, and bandwidth control can form a powerful
triad of functionality, enabling CSPs to differentiate their offerings
from those provided by over-the-top (OTT) competitors and create new
customer value using these network-centric features.”
Availability
BIG-IP Policy Enforcement Manager (PEM), BIG-IP Carrier-Grade NAT, and
BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager are generally available now. Please
contact a
local F5 office for availability in specific countries.
Additional Resources
About F5 Networks
F5 Networks (NASDAQ:
FFIV) makes the connected world run better. F5 helps organizations
meet the demands and embrace the opportunities that come with the
relentless growth of voice, data, and video traffic, mobile workers, and
applications—in the data center, the network, and the cloud. The world’s
largest businesses, service providers, government entities, and consumer
brands rely on F5’s intelligent services framework to deliver
and protect their applications and services while ensuring people stay
connected. Learn more at www.f5.com.
You can also follow @f5networks
on Twitter or visit us on Facebook
for more information about F5, its partners, and technology. For a
complete listing of F5 community sites, please visit www.f5.com/news-press-events/web-media/community.html.
F5, Advanced Firewall Manager, BIG-IP, Policy Enforcement Manager, PEM,
and VIPRION are trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc., in the
U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may
be trademarks of their respective owners.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements relating to
future events or future financial performance that involve risks and
uncertainties. Such statements can be identified by terminology such as
"may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes,"
"estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of
such terms or comparable terms. These statements are only predictions
and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in
these statements based upon a number of factors including those
identified in the company's filings with the SEC.
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